Belarus to continue looking for crude oil sources alternative to Russia in 2021 – Golovchenko

<p> MINSK, Nov 3 - PrimePress. Russia will remain the major supplier of crude oil to Belarus in 2021. The latter will continue looking for alternative sources, though, Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko said on November 2, 2020 on Belarus-1 TV channel. </p> <p>   </p> <p> “We will continue [in 2021] procuring oil from alternative sources as we are doing this year, but, of course, the bulk will come from Russia through pipelines,” Golovchenko said. </p> <p>   </p> <p> According to the prime minister, among other things, the Belarusian refineries take interest in trying new grades with a view to boost output of light oil products. </p> <p>   </p> <p> Golovchenko also assured that the situation with oil supplies to Belarus in 2021 was totally stable and predictable. </p> <p>   </p> <p> “We estimate the volume of Russian oil supplied to the Belarusian refineries at 18-24 million tonnes per year. The volume depends on the available technical processing capacities of our enterprises and the oil market behavior,” he said. </p> <p>   </p> <p> Belarus has been diversifying oil supplies to its refineries (Mozyr Oil Refinery, Gomel Oblast, and Naftan OJSC, Novopolotsk, Vitebsk Oblast) after Russia cut supplies in January-March 2020 due to price disagreements with Russian large oil companies. In 2020, Belarus has purchased oil from Azerbaijan, Norway, Saudi Arabia and the United States, which was delivered by sea tankers to the ports of Klaipeda (Lithuania) and Odessa (Ukraine). End </p> <p>   </p>

2020-11-04

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